Project Sunny – Blast Therapy and Choosing the Right Black

The winter holiday season can be a tough time to pull away from family to work on personal projects. Unless, that is, your project lives at work. When the normal workflow falls apart with everyone’s vacation schedule, there’s usually a little spare time to sneak away to the shop.

I used the lighter than usual schedule to catch up on some parts preparation on the Range Rover project. In theory, I wanted to refinish some of the engine brackets and accessories so they’d be ready when the engine goes back together. In reality, I had take-off parts from all over the vehicle to be refinished in either black paint or plating. So I decided to separate them into batches and start with the black-finish parts first.

These consisted of mostly brackets and mounts, but also the air filter housing and the air suspension components. All of them were rusty, of course, so I started at the blast cabinet. I used EpiX Enhanced superoxalloy abrasive, an aluminum oxide alternative that cuts rust and paint but leaves a smoother finish.

Over the course of a couple days, I logged about 10 hours of time at the B120 blast cabinet. I find it truly therapeutic to watch thirty years of dirt and rust disappear before my eyes, revealing like-new metal. Naturally, there were plenty of parts that will still need some further smoothing before paint. But with few exceptions, just about everything I blasted was salvageable.

Once I had everything stripped to bare metal, I did some further triage. Even though all these parts were going to black, I decided some needed to be powder coated. These included the bumper brackets and recovery hooks, the front license plate bracket, and the suspension air tank. I set them aside for another day, knowing others in the shop also have some upcoming powder projects to coat.

Black is Black – Or Is It?

For the remaining parts, I had to figure out which black I was actually going to use. The original finish on all these parts appeared to be a universal low-gloss trim black. My options included a couple versions of Underhood Black, a couple versions of Chassis Black, and a couple versions of Trim Black. I tried all the variations of semi-gloss or satin to see which was closest.

Most of these paints are designed to be applied directly to metal. However, I went ahead and coated everything in 2K epoxy primer to ensure the most solid bond. Once it cured, I sprayed out samples of each color on a single piece and compared. For my needs, I could see right away the Low Gloss Underhood Black was far too glossy. The matte-finish Underhood Black looked great at first. However, when compared to an unblasted original parts was just too matte.

Next up was Extreme Chassis Black in satin finish. I knew this would probably be the most durable of the finishes of the bunch, and satin seemed right. This one took a bit longer to dry than the others, though, and it ran a bit in the process. When it eventually dried, the finish was pretty accurate. Finally, tried the new Eastwood Trim Black in semi-gloss finish. This covered evenly without running and dried quickly to what appears to be the perfect finish.

So now that I’ve found the right paint for my black trim, I’ll get to work finish the rest of them. I’ll also have to go back and refinish my other test samples. Look for an upcoming report on the powder coating and hopefully an update on the engine refinishing.